By Jennifer Landis | Posted: January 24, 2020

As you go through your normal routine every day, you probably spend time dreaming about how you could make your life better. For some people, that might mean moving to a different city or trying out a new job. Others might want to reinvent their sense of style or adopt a pet. 

Personal goals differ depending on things like your age and where you are in life. When you were ten years old, all you wanted was to save money for a new bike. As an adult, you'd rather have an emergency savings account built up. It's great to have goals and do your best to make them happen, but that's hard to do when bad habits get in the way.

You don't need to struggle to reach your goals any longer. Read about why building a habit loop is the best way to meet your goals. Once you learn how to create a loop, you can confidently overcome the roadblocks that keep you from reaching your dreams.

You'll approach habits differently

Some habits are older than others. As a kid, you might have dealt with stress in the classroom by chewing on your pencil. Now you catch yourself doing the same thing to pens when you're at work. It's not professional, and it's embarrassing when someone finds you doing it, but you've tried stopping before and it didn't work.

Maybe you threw away all your pens for a while, or tried playing with a pen cap instead. No matter what you did, the bad habit stayed, and you started to accept its constant presence. The real issue here could be the ways in which you tried to stop your habit, not in the act itself.

A habit loop works in a few easy steps — you look for triggers, identify when you do your habit and reward yourself when you actively replace that action with something better. Take a look at why each of these steps are so important and how they'll help you in the long run.

You'll identify your triggers

Even if you don't think you have any, everyone has specific triggers that start their bad habits. Imagine that you can't stop chewing your nails. The more you practice meditation and mindfulness, the easier it will be to become more self-aware. The next time you reach your hand up, pause, take a few deep breaths, and think. Run through this list of common triggers:

• ·     What emotional state are you in?
• ·     What time of day is it?
• ·     What just happened before you indulged in your habit?
• ·     What's going on in the environment around you?

Your trigger could be thinking about someone who stresses you out or reaching the time of day where you start to feel tired. After you've gone through the list and learn what triggers you, you can move onto the next step in your habit loop.

You'll become proactive

Once you know why you indulge in your bad habit, you can replace that action with something new and healthier. Many people struggle with eating too much unhealthy food, and hope to stop so they become a healthier version of themselves. If this is you, there are a few things you can do.

The next time you reach for that can of soda or bag of chips, first decide if you're actually hungry. Prep your fridge with healthy snacks for the moment when that's the case. When you're about to eat because you're bored, try a different activity. A few jumping jacks or even moving yourself to a new location will get your blood pumping and help you not focus on eating. Studies show that when young kids get outside to play, they decrease their risk of obesity. Something as simple as introducing a 10-minute yoga routine to your day could be what you're missing. 

Enjoy the same benefits by performing a new action the next time you want to eat something bad. Swap your usual snacks for veggies, exercise, or even a self-care ritual like journaling to get your mind away from your habit and get one step closer to your goals.

You'll learn what you prefer

The final step in the habit loop is to reward yourself for completing that new action instead of repeating your bad habit. It's more important than you might realize. Maybe you want to end your procrastination. You've learned when you become unfocused and why. When you start to get lazy at your job or school, you walk up and down the hall three times to hype yourself up to keep working. After you get back to your desk and even put in another fifteen minutes of work, reward yourself with something that makes you happy. Consider a cup of coffee or five minutes on your favorite social media feed.

When you reward yourself, your brain creates a rush of dopamine that floods you with satisfaction. Your brain craves that feeling and will push you to repeat whatever caused it. That loops your actions back around to catching your habit and replacing it with something better, ultimately rewarding yourself once again for not giving in. 

Experiment with rewards to learn what you prefer to get a greater sense of satisfaction after you defeat your bad habits.

You'll Create a Plan

Now you know what a habit loop is and how to use it in your life. That's what forms the critical plan to make your goals a reality. Your goal to save money for a downpayment on a house or to graduate from college will seem easy once you stop impulsively spending or slacking off in your study routine. Use habit loops to become stronger and more confident, so you can conquer your goals and create new ones along the way.

Jennifer Landis is a healthy living blogger, mother, wife, distance runner, yogi, and tea connoisseur. She enjoys clean eating, but also peanut butter ice cream. She writes about mindfulness, parenting, and clean eating on her blog, Mindfulness Mama.